Jenn Holden of Woodside knows about hunger, and what to do about it

It's a little after 10 on Friday morning when the little white truck with the words on its side, "Angel Food -- Good Deeds Delivered," pulls up to Hoover School in Redwood City.

Before Jenn Holden of Woodside -- who everyone describes as Angel Food's angel -- has finished parking, a group of women appear to unload the food crammed into every nook and cranny of the former Moffett Field utility vehicle.

Inside the Hoover Family Center, the contents of the tiny truck seem to expand to fill an entire room.

Accompanied by Spanish Christmas music, the women quickly divide large packages of food into smaller ones, and start filling bags with food for 15 families. The food is designed to help the families get through the weekend, when the free school meals their children usually rely on are not available.

In the meantime, John Holden arrives in the Hoover parking lot to pick up 20 bagged lunches his wife put together that morning in the Redwood City commercial kitchen of Encore Catering, where she rents space. The bags go to the East Palo Alto Academy, a charter public high school in Menlo Park, to supplement the students' weekend food. The bags are discreetly handed out by coaches and teachers.

Tanuja Bali, from Los Altos, is also in the Hoover parking lot, her car loaded with home-baked goodies and whole-wheat sandwiches she has prepared. They will go into the bag lunches and into food bags Ms. Holden hands out to homeless people, plus serve as dessert for the communal Saturday lunch Angel Food provides for a group at the Riekes Center in Menlo Park.

Angel Food is only three months old, but it is something Jenn Holden has spent decades preparing for. Born in San Francisco, and living on the Midpeninsula since 1982, she knows about food from working in local restaurants including Nina's Cafe, the Skywood Chateau and Iberia. She spent three years as manager at Bucks restaurant in Woodside, where owner Jamis MacNiven introduced her to her husband, John.

She also knows those who need food, from working as assistant manager of a Redwood City homeless shelter (a job she says she got after writing about "my days as a homeless runaway at 15"), as a food program manager for Samaritan House serving more than 300 meals a day, and as a case manager at Urban Ministry in Palo Alto.

"I knew hunger and neglect when I was young," she says, "and people's shame in admitting to being hungry resonates with me."

In India, she helped women set up a small business embroidering jeans and, most recently, she and John spent parts of the past four years in Guatemala working in hospitals and cooking for locals.

"I have seen people hungry and tried to help in India and Guatemala," she says. "Now I see a real need here at home, and right down the road."

The food she provides "is given discreetly and with dignity," she says.

At Hoover, the 15 families in the program call it "Bolsitas de Amor" or bags of love. Ms. Holden worked out the program with the families and Jana Kiser, Hoover's community school coordinator. Each family takes part for only four months, before letting other families on a waiting list participate. "The idea is that it's a leg up for four months," Ms. Kiser says.

The families also "give" of themselves. "We look at it as mutual service," Ms. Kiser says. Once a month, Ms. Holden and the team of families cook together in the rented industrial kitchen space and share the end result with others who could use food. The group recently made more than 17 gallons of chicken soup that was shared with the Maple Street homeless shelter, neighbors and friends.

They have also committed to attend classes on family budgeting, take on leadership activities, and get others involved in Hoover by bringing four new people to a class or an event there.

Hoover School has more than 900 students with 90 percent classified as English language learners and 90 percent whose family income qualifies them for free or reduced prices lunches, Ms. Kiser says. "It's always an incredibly united, resilient community," she says.

Ms. Holden has been using the NextDoorWoodside website to let her neighbors know about Angel Food's needs, but the Holdens have been spending close to $500 a week to pay the expenses.

She is still exploring the final shape of the program. "I'm really in the discovery process of finding out who needs food," she says. "I realize there are other agencies that provide free food, so I am not trying to re-invent the meal."

Instead, she is trying to develop relationships so she can find people who for whatever reason -- immigration status, illness, lack of transportation, pride -- are not using existing resources.

Those Ms. Holden is working with cannot say enough about her. "She is just a model of kindness and compassion and empathy and also respect," says Ms. Kiser at the Hoover Family Center.

At Riekes Center, Gary Riekes is equally wowed. "She's truly an angel," he says. The food she brings, which the volunteers prepare as a group, brings together a diverse group in a common activity. "Everybody eats," he says.

Lending a hand

Want to help? Here are some ways:

■ Sponsor an Angel Food expense, once or every month.

■ Fill the crockpot for Saturday lunch at Riekes Center or buy a Friday Heart-T food bag for a local high school student ($40 a month).

■ Pay the rent for the commercial kitchen ($100 a month).

■ Pay for a weekly bag of groceries for a family of four ($100 a month).

■ Donate food items in quantities to feed 15 families.

■ Give gas cards.

■ Volunteer to make sandwiches, pack lunch bags, buy groceries or make pickups or deliveries.

JennAngelFood@gmail.com is the email address to get a list of current needs or to find out how to donate through PayPal. The Angel Food truck is usually parked at Roberts Market, 3015 Woodside Road in Woodside, on Thursdays, from 4 to 5 p.m., for donation dropoffs. The mailing address is: 232 Highland Terrace, Woodside, CA 94062.

Posted by Ranch Gal
a resident of Atherton: West Atherton
on Dec 21, 2011 at 12:38 pm

Now this is quite a story. I hope this stirs the hearts of everyone who reads this to contribute something this Christmas. Even packing sandwiches. As I read over the years the constant bickering here among the bloggers (you know who you are) why can't we all get together under this umbrella and contribute to something worthwhile for a change? Especially those town council members and town attorney! Stop threatening jail sentences for leaving our garbage cans out too long and start volunteering to make sandwiches, pack lunch bags, buy groceries and make deliveries. Get acquainted with the 99%.